Fenmoor Specialty Underwriting / BG-Demo – Check In
Callcompleted
Fenmoor Specialty Underwriting · 23 Oct 2025 13:00
Callum Reid reports wider use, the claims dates fix holding, and a dashboard he built himself. He wants a value case before a capacity-provider review, but says he is not the person for the renewal conversation.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Callum Reid reports wider use, the claims dates fix holding, and a dashboard he built himself. He wants a value case before a capacity-provider review, but says he is not the person for the renewal conversation.
What happened: Callum Reid, Head of Underwriting Operations, said the team now asks the brain first and the claims dates line up after the priority ticket. He showed a dashboard of open queries by binder, coloured by age.
Customer view: He values the nightly refresh being right at 07:00 and wants claims tickets against binders added. Daniel Okafor promised a yes or no by the end of the following week.
Commercial: Daniel proposed a value case at the next quarterly review, ahead of the renewal on 1 Jul 2026. Callum declined to own the renewal conversation and said it is above him. He declined the on-site training day for now.
Watch: The contract owner is not identified in the call, and the value case needs that person in the room. Extra cargo underwriters joining after the new year fit within the forty seats.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Adoption and value case
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Daniel Okafor to answer yes or no on the claims-tickets-by-binder view by the end of the following week.
- Daniel Okafor to send options for the quarterly review and list what he needs from Callum.
- Callum Reid to tell the contract owner and get them into the value review.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Callum Reid says the renewal conversation is above him and the contract owner is not named in the call.
- The value case depends on the right person attending the quarterly review.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A value case built on questions asked, hours saved and the new dashboard supports the renewal.
- A couple more cargo underwriters joining after the new year fit within the forty seats.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforGood afternoon, Callum, and thanks for making the time. Just checking who's here – I think it's just the two of us again?
Callum ReidAfternoon. Just us. Can you hear me alright? I'm in a different room today, so tell me if there's an echo.- Daniel OkaforNo echo, you sound fine. Where are you hiding, then?
- Callum ReidThe small meeting room. They're refitting the kitchen on our floor, so it's the only quiet place in the building. Anyway. What I need today is a bit different – I want to show you something I've built, and I want to hear where we've got to on that ticket.
- Daniel OkaforLovely, I'd like both. Shall I do the numbers first, so they're out of the way, and then hand over to you?
- Callum ReidGo on.
- Daniel OkaforSo, active users are up quite a lot on the previous quarter – a good deal more people in there than when we last spoke. It's about a third of your forty seats at the moment, which feels like a healthy place to be, with room still to grow into. I'm very happy with it, but how is the team finding it? That's the bit the numbers don't tell me.
- Callum ReidBetter. Honestly, much better. The session you ran with the newer underwriters, they went back into it afterwards, which I didn't expect. One of them asked me last week whether it could pull the open bordereaux queries by binder, and I just said, well, ask it.
- Daniel OkaforThat's the best sentence I've heard all week. Did it answer her?
- Callum ReidIt did. Not perfectly, she had to rephrase once, but it did. That used to be me, or someone on my team, going line by line through a spreadsheet. It's a different place to be.
- Daniel OkaforAnd the habit of asking you first – has that eased off?
- Callum ReidMostly. I still get the odd one. But my leads are now telling people to ask the brain before they ask me, which is the right way round, so I'm not going to complain.
- Daniel OkaforThat's exactly what I'd hoped for. And it's a wider spread of people asking now, it's not just you and a couple of leads any more, which takes a lot of the pressure off. That was the one thing I was a bit nervous about last time, if I'm honest.
- Callum ReidGood. I'll take that.
- Daniel OkaforNow, the ticket. I can see there was one priority ticket this month and that it's closed. I'd like to hear from you how it felt, though, not just what the system says.
- Callum ReidIt was the claims dates. The thing I raised last time. A capacity provider asked a question that touched it, and I needed it right that week, not eventually. Your support people picked it up quickly, an engineer rang me, we went through a couple of the examples together, and it was fixed. Properly, I think. I'll stand by that for now.
- Daniel OkaforI'm really glad, and thank you for the examples, they made all the difference. Do the dates line up when your team looks now?
- Callum ReidThey do. I checked a few myself, because I don't take anyone's word on it. The underwriters have stopped going back to the spreadsheet for claims, which is what I actually care about.
- Daniel OkaforGood. Just to close the loop, I'd be grateful if you'd tell me straight away if any of them drift again. I'd rather hear it from you than find it in a log a week later.
- Callum ReidI will. And I'll want a time if it does.
- Daniel OkaforYou'd get one.
- Callum ReidRight. Can I share my screen? Because that's the other thing.
- Daniel OkaforPlease do. Go on.
- Callum ReidGive me a second, it's being slow. There. This is the dashboard. One of the leads built a base and I tidied it. It's cargo and indemnity side by side, open queries by binder, and the age of each query.
- Daniel OkaforThat's rather good. Sorry, I'm just looking at it – oh, it's the age that's clever. You've got it coloured by how long each one's been sitting?
- Callum ReidYes. Anything over a certain age goes red. Because that's what the capacity providers actually ask. Not 'how many', but 'how long'. That's a capacity-provider question.
- Daniel OkaforAnd it refreshes overnight with everything else, so it's right at 07:00?
- Callum ReidIt's right at 07:00. I've looked at it before my first coffee for weeks. It's never been wrong.
- Daniel OkaforThat's lovely to hear. And it's you, not us, who built it, which I'd say is the whole point. May I ask what you'd want it to show next?
- Callum ReidWhat I want is claims tickets against binders. Which binders are generating the most claims queries, so I'm ahead of the question instead of behind it. Same age colouring, same view. That would save me a conversation or two each month.
- Daniel OkaforThat should be doable with what you've got connected already, since the claims tickets are in. I'll check how the fields line up before I promise you anything, because I don't want to say yes and then come back with a maybe.
- Callum ReidFine. By when?
- Daniel OkaforI'll come back to you by the end of next week with a yes or a no, and what it would take either way.
- Callum ReidGood. That's a time.
- Daniel OkaforThat ties in with something else. Your plan includes a quarterly review, and I think the next one is the right moment to put the value picture together properly – questions asked, the hours it's saved you on oversight requests, and that dashboard you've just shown me. Something you can put in front of people.
- Callum ReidI'd like that. Before the year's out if possible. There's a capacity-provider review coming up and I'd like to walk in with something other than my opinion.
- Daniel OkaforThen I'll send you a few options this week, so you can pick one that suits you and not be told.
- Callum ReidThey always ask the same few things, you see. How quickly do you turn a submission round, how many queries are aged, what's your claims referral pattern. Same questions every time, only phrased differently. If I can answer them off one page, that's the whole job done.
- Daniel OkaforThat's exactly what we should show them. I'd pull the real requests you've had – the binder one from earlier, the claims referral one – and show what they took before and what they take now. You'd only need to tell me if the story's right.
- Callum ReidThose I can give you. Send me what you need.
- Daniel OkaforAnd I'd like to have whoever looks after the contract on your side in the room, if that's possible. I'd rather they heard the value case from us than second-hand.
- Callum ReidThat's above me, but I'll tell them. I'll make sure the right person's there.
- Daniel OkaforThank you. It also puts us nicely ahead of the renewal, so there's no surprise on either side. The contract runs to 30 Jun 2026 and renews on 1 Jul 2026. Plenty of time, but I'd rather the conversation was easy and not rushed.
- Callum ReidI'm not the one for that conversation, Daniel. Just don't surprise me.
- Daniel OkaforI won't. That's a promise.
- Callum ReidOne more thing, actually. A couple more underwriters are joining the cargo team after the new year, and I'd like them on it from their first week, not six months in. Do I need to tell you anything about seats?
- Daniel OkaforYou've plenty of room – forty seats and you're using about a third. Just let me know when they've started and I'll make sure they're set up and invited. Perhaps we could even run that same short session for them in their first week.
- Callum ReidI'd like that. Do you see other firms like us doing anything we're not?
- Daniel OkaforI don't want to speak for other customers, but if I'm honest the teams who get the most from it tend to be the ones who build their own views, which you've just done. The ones who ask it every morning rather than the odd time. You're already doing both, so I'd say you're comfortably ahead.
- Callum ReidGood. I'll pass that upstairs.
- Daniel OkaforThere's also an on-site training day, if you ever feel a half-day with the whole team would be worth it. It's an add-on, not something I'm pushing – I just wanted you to know it exists.
- Callum ReidPark it. Not now. Let's see how the new people get on first.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. Right, let me close the loop on what we've said, because there are a few things. I'll send you a short note after this. In it, a yes or a no on the claims view by the end of next week, a few options for the quarterly review, and a note on what I'd want from you for the value case. Have I missed anything?
- Callum ReidNo. That's what I need. Claims view answer, review dates, what you want from me.
- Daniel OkaforThat's it. And how's the rest of your week? Anything nice at the weekend?
- Callum ReidHalf term, so the kids are about. Which means peace is a distant memory. Yours?
- Daniel OkaforQuiet, I think. A walk, if the weather holds. It's turned very autumnal, hasn't it?
- Callum ReidIt has. Wet through on the way in this morning. Anyway, I should let you go – I've got the claims team in shortly.
- Daniel OkaforOf course. Thanks again, Callum, and well done on the dashboard. I mean that.
- Callum ReidCheers, Daniel. Speak soon.
- Daniel OkaforBye for now.
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